PHS work shadow day: reflections of an undergraduate

I recently took part in a work shadow placement with the Microbiology Team at Public Health Scotland, which was extremely beneficial. It widened my knowledge of the career possibilities available to me and taught me a lot about the organisation.

Throughout the day, I heard lectures from several PHS staff members and had the opportunity to ask questions. I also had the privilege of observing some PHS meetings, which made the experience very realistic and engaging.

The lectures covered a wide range of topics from genome sequencing to health equity. The incorporation of the impacts of Covid-19 was particularly interesting as it is something that has affected everyone. PHS explained how the infrastructure had to be rebuilt to cope with the huge amounts of data, which is something I hadn’t considered during the pandemic. We were also given an insight into the nationwide laboratory services in microbiology, which highlighted the collaboration required for successful outcomes.

The health equity lecture was the most enlightening of the placement as a lot of the content was new to me. It was interesting to hear about the not-so-obvious impacts of the pandemic like late diagnosis and the reality of social distancing being more difficult for those with lower incomes. Additionally, the reasoning for keeping nursery children in school as much as possible was discussed, again something that I hadn’t thought about.

Next, we heard about PHS's approach to microbiology, which provided additional knowledge to my current module content. This enhanced my understanding significantly and will benefit my degree immensely. We heard about a career path and this led on nicely to a talk on careers in microbiology and virology. I was truly astonished when listening to the huge range of possibilities and directions my degree could take me in. It was very exciting and gave me a lot to think about.

The other part of the day included being a part of PHS meetings. Despite not being able to follow along with all the meeting content, I really enjoyed myself. The whole genome sequencing coordination group left me with a lot to think about in terms of writing scientific papers. There is so much to consider, and it is not as easy as just writing it. Another, clear take home message was the number of acronyms involved, which I think exemplifies the complexity of the work being discussed. The last meeting had a representative from each NHS health board demonstrating the importance of PHS and the rest of the NHS working together.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my work placement and learned an abundance of new things including new terms and career prospects. I know this has benefited not only my university attainment but also my confidence. I would love to do some more work with PHS in the future.